November 14, 2016

Notes From The Underground: Aüva's Day One in The Studio at Mad Oak with Benny Grotto

Aloha readers. If you caught our post a few weeks back about sending Aüva into the studio in a mystery donor's dime, and even if you didn't, well it's time for an update. The young and talented Boston indie pop sextet entered the hallowed halls of Mad Oak Studios with esteemed producer Benny Grotto Friday to record new music, and we've got a report from singer and keyboard player Miette. It turns out the band and the studio are neighbors, so Aüva was able to literally just push its gear down the street to make the session, which seems like something The Monkees would have done, so we like it. Anyway, we'll have additional notes from the band in the coming days. For now, read Miette's take on day one.

Our first day in the studio, we pushed all of our gear over in a shopping cart from our house which is actually right down the road. Making our way to the studio we were surprised at how well it was disguised in what looked like a garage from the front right around the corner from the tattoo shop and venues we have all been to before. When we met Benny he was super nice and made us feel very comfortable right off the bat. His conversation was casual but professional and we didn't waste any time in getting right down to business discussing our instrumentation and process. The studio itself was amazing, with gorgeously warm toned wood floors and panels surrounding. The monitors and mixing board were super nice and there were so many different compressors and preamp options throughout the mixing room.

We all took a seat on a black leather couch at the back of the room that was placed perfectly in front of the monitors and talked about our recording plans for the day. After some conversation we collectively decided that it would be best to play through all three of our songs live and focus on getting the best drum takes. We sang the vocals in the mixing room in front of the window in between the live room and mixing room so we could see the rest of the band and they could see us. Benny is also a drummer so he had some cool suggestions for Michael in order to get the best possible drum sound. We played one of the songs without a click to really get the feeling of the way we are used to playing it and it ended up going really well. Another really cool thing about this studio is that the lights in the mixing room had color changing capabilities so we were able to have the room be whatever color we wanted which really helped us get into the feeling of the music a little more. Overall, the first day was very productive and we had such a good time working with Benny and in that space. Can't wait for tomorrow [Saturday -- Ed.], we'll be tracking bass, guitar, and keys. -- Miette